Are your government employees tired, lacking motivation, or just simply needing a little of bit of pep to help them overcome some pessimistic attitudes at the workplace? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Here are 3 tips to help boost employee morale that can be implemented no matter your position, agency, or department. And you just might be surprised at the potential benefits to your team/department/agency that result from these actions taken by you!
1. Recognize: People like and thrive on being recognized when they do a good job, so recognize your employees. Recognition can come in many forms, including a positive email to your employee and your supervisor for a task or project well done, a public praise to your employee in front of your team or colleagues, or a simple conversation with that employee in which you tell him her/how you value his/her time, work performance, and effort.
—>Possible benefits to you/your department: Increased employee work performance, a shift to positive attitudes and outlook on work by employees, an improved relationship between you and your employees, an employee’s desire to work harder and better for you
2. Reward: When your employees finish a big project, perform an intensive training for stakeholders, complete an annual report, or do something above and beyond their job requirements, try to reward them. While you may not be able to give rewards such as a day off, maybe you could give them the reward of being involved in higher-level discussions or having more input in big decisions. Perhaps you could reward your employee for her dedication to a time sensitive matter that required her to work through her lunch break by letting her go home early when the report was submitted. Whether it’s through actual incentives, extra leave time, or increased role in the team, rewarding your employees will help boost their morale.
—>Possible benefits to you/your department: Discovery of additional skills and talents that your employees bring to your team, gratitude and appreciation from employees, increased harmony in your relationship with your employees
3. Relax: One of the best ways to boost employees’ morale is to be real with them and to form a bond with them about something outside of work. This may mean that you organize a fun Fantasy Football League for your department and encourage some lighthearted competition. Or this could mean that you open up a bit with your employees about your interests and hobbies and enable them to find some similarities and common ground with you as a person, not just as their boss or supervisor. Another way to relax and boost employee morale is to take your employees to lunch or coffee and share a casual conversation, fostering a relationship of cooperation and partnership in your department’s mission and your goals as fellow public servants.
—>Possible benefits to you/your department: A friendlier and more respectful work environment, bonding between you and your employees and employee-to-employee, a unified team desire to perform well and reach the same departmental goal, a happier place to work every day.
In the comments below, please share additional tips to boost employee morale!
Christina Smith is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.
Creating a working, collaborative relationship is key! Thanks for pointing it out, Christina!
Thank you Hannah!
Not one, not two, not three but four offensive gestures in a picture attached to a blog post about morale. I am sure my Muslim and Latino friends whose countries see the thumbs up sign as equivalent to the middle finger gesture feel recognized, rewarded and relaxed.
While we’re at it, we should eliminate the smiles also because in some cultures smiling is seen as a form of aggression or hostility; some cultures would see the ‘totem’ or ‘pagan’ bracelets the men are wearing as a symbol of devil worship; and the fact that the women don’t have their hair covered is extremely offensive to members of several religious cultures; sitting beside (or contacting!) a member of the opposite sex that is not a close relative is grounds for punishment in many cultures; looking a person in the eye is a sign of disrespect in some cultures. Perhaps in the future we should all limit our public expressions and appearance to only those factors which have no possibility of offending anyone, anywhere, any time, in any context, in any situation? The ability to overlook minor annoyances is a sign of well developed emotional maturity and intellect. How about if we all stop searching for tiny excuses to be offended focus on the big picture around us.
Let me see if I understand your post.
1. You want people to ignore differences. I guess we are all the same to you.
2. You want everyone to see the world from the same perspective.
3. You want to punish people who ask others to acknowledge differences.
4, You want us to acknowledge a world that just looks like your world.
5. You want us to look past injustices in order to justify present day injustices.
6. Finally, you want to force your privilege on those who see the world differently.
With this edition of govloop is an infographic article. It shows that 63% of the government employees aged over 50 and 25% over 60 with 9% under 50. The article is not representative of reality in the government employee workforce.
I have also used some of the these suggested to create bonds with some supervisors and it often backfires. I leave my personal life at home.